Microsoft to sell Xbox One without Kinect

On May 14, 2014 by Aaron Meehan

Yesterday, Phil Spencer, Head of Xbox, revealed that Microsoft will be selling a new Xbox One console option that doesn’t include the Kinect, for $399. The new console option will be available from June 9th.

In the video announcement Phil Spencer explained the reasoning behind the new console option “We’ve also heard from people that just like to play games with controller in their hand, and the play multiplayer through Xbox Live. And what we wanted to was for those people make sure that there’s a version of Xbox really meets the exact needs they have.” While it is nice to see Xbox looking towards their core market i.e. those who use the system for gaming, it would have been nice if they thought about them at the start instead of forcing them to pay the extra $100 for the Kinect. Although Phil Spencer stated that those who bought the Xbox One without the Kinect can buy the Kinect separately at a later date. This choice is very similar to what Sony decided to do with the PlayStation 4 and the console’s camera attachment.

Apart from the Xbox One without Kinect announcement, Phil Spencer also revealed that starting from June Xbox 360 and Xbox One owners will no longer need Xbox Live Gold membership to use applications such as Netflix and Twitch.